564
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 23RD NOVEMBER, 1878.
The reply to that letter, dated the 7th November, is in these words:-
“HONGKONG MAGISTRACY, 7th November, 1878.
"GENTLEMEN,-In reply to your letter of 2nd instant I have the honour to state that by the Gaol Ordinance Justices of the Peace are only empowered to meet in order to revise prison rules and regulations.
"The Attorney General, to whom I have referred the matter, is of opinion that we have no power by virtue of office to discuss the question of enlarging the building. Consequently I should not be justified in calling a Meeting of the Justices for that purpose.
"I have the honour to be,
"Gentlemen, "Your most obedient Servant,
"C. V. CREAGH, "Acting Police Magistrate.”
On the 9th November, the following letter was addressed to Mr. CREAGH:-
"HONGKONG, 9th November, 1878.
"SIR,-Thanking you for your communication of 7th instant, we have the honour to request that you will convene and preside at a Meeting of the Justices to revise the rules and regulations of the Gaol.
"If convenient in all respects we suggest that the Meeting be held on Friday next, the 15th instant, at half-past three o'clock in the afternoon.
"We have the honour to be,
"Sir
"Your obedient Servants,"
It is signed by the same gentlemen. On the 11th November the following reply was received:-
"HONGKONG MAGISTRACY, 11th November, 1878.
“GENTLEMEN,-I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter of 9th instant and regret that I am unable to comply with your request.
"The present Gaol regulations (which were introduced only last year by Sir ARTHUR KENNEDY) appear to me to answer in every way the purpose for which they are intended. I cannot therefore participate in any measures taken with a view to their alteration.
"I have the honor
Jn,
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bedient Servant,
"C. V. CREAGH, “Acting Police Magistrate.”
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that
letter the following answer was sent on the 16th November:
"HONGKONG, 16th November, 1878.
"SIR,-We have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter of 11th instant, and we regret the answer it conveys to our application to you to call a Meeting of the Justices of the Peace.
"You give as a reason for not complying with our request your opinion that the present Gaol regulations answer in every way purpose for which they were intended.
the
"We submit that your own opinion, valuable as we admit it to be, of the efficiency of the Gaol rules is not sufficient reason for your declining to summon a Meeting of the Justices when invited to do so-and we request a reconsideration of your decision.
"We desire to point out that by section 10 of Ordinance No. 4 of 1864, under which we wish to act, it is laid down that at Meetings of Justices of the Peace one of the Justices must be a Police Magistrate, and that it is hardly to be supposed that in framing this section there was an intention to give the Magistrate a right to render nugatory the opinions and powers of the body of Justices by a capricious refusal to summon or attend their Meetings.
"We have the honour to be, etc."
No reply has been received to that letter. Indeed there has not been time for one to be received, but I hoped that an application by the Justices would have led to their meeting together at the Gaol, together with a Police Magistrate, and becoming fully conversant with this important matter of the regulations of the Gaol. I hope still we may have that opportunity. There is one matter which I had overlooked almost, but which is really so important that I hope your Excellency will allow me to return to it. It was with reference to important rules on the sanitary state of the town. The Chinese have very different ideas from ours on some matters, especially, I should think, on the matter of Gaols and the necessity of keeping their houses clean, and what we should consider the amount of air which tenants should possess or have the means of obtaining. On the 24th of May a Memorial was addressed to your Excellency by a number of Chinese in which they state, after complaining of interference with their rights:-
"Now these habits, although your Memorialists are given to understand that they are condemned by the more recent rules of Western science, are, as a matter of fact, the outcome of a lengthened experience among the Chinese of living in large and crowded cities, and are as deep-rooted as most of their social customs, so that it is quite certain that the tenants for whom these houses are intended as they would not understand the reason, would in no way avail themselves of the facilities for the free access of light and air which the Surveyor General's proposed alterations would provide for them."
These gentlemen evidently don't like to have the dwellings of the poorer classes in Hongkong improved. But your Excellency's minute on this Memorial is one that should be borne in mind in discussing the matter of putting the Chinese on the same footing in this Gaol that Europeans would be placed on in a Gaol at home.
"This Memorial, which relates to the structure of purely Chinese houses in the Chinese quarter of the town, is signed by nearly all the leading Chinese inhabitants of Hongkong, in fact it is signed by those intelligent and influential Chinese residents whose views with respect to such questions are entitled to the greatest weight. Agreeing with them in the
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